Oh, but it isn't a tax, its a penalty (or some other fuzzy psuedo legal concept.)

I think you have it backwards. IIRC Congress didn't want to call it a tax, so they called it a penalty, which they probably didn't have the authority to impose. The Chief Justice saved it by calling it a tax, which they had authority to impose. And if the Supremes say it's a tax, it's a tax until they say otherwise.

I was amused by all the ya-ya over Romney's comment that corporations are people. While he was speaking about a broader construct, I was reflecting on the Internal Revenue Code's definition of "person." It includes corporations (IRC 7701(a)(1)). When the Code is talking about what normal people call people it calls them "individuals."

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